Phillips announces A Constant Pursuit: Photographs from the Collection of Ed Cohen and Victoria Shaw. The sale, featuring 83 lots, will take place on Thursday, 4 October. Avid collectors of Contemporary Art and Photographs, Ed Cohen and Victoria Shaw have acquired an impressive collection of works by some of the most important artists of the 19th through 21st centuries. With a keen interest at the intersection of art and literature, and in works that speak to the essence of humanity, their collection reflects many ways of seeing the world as expressed in photographs by Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, Francesca Woodman and Man Ray, among many others.
Vanessa Hallett, Deputy Chairman, Americas, and Worldwide Head of Photographs, said, “Renowned collectors, Ed Cohen and Victoria Shaw have acquired an extensive collection of 20th Century & Contemporary Art and Photographs. Their passionate approach to collecting is driven by intellect and intuition, resulting in a unique and endlessly fascinating personal collection.”
Ed Cohen said, “The photographs in the collection resonate with my intense relationship with literature, poetry, art and architecture. Human experience and the photographer’s eye, catching the moment where revelation occurs. Irving Penn’s Barnett Newman. I have lived with two Newmans, and Penn brings to life the minimal imperfection that is in his paintings. Robert Mapplethorpe’s American Flag, makes us think about the nature of patriotism. Atget’s late photo, St. Cloud, 1926, has an ancient mystery about it. As Diane Arbus said, great photographs have a secret about them but also a revelation.”
Particularly drawn to portraits that embody their interdisciplinary interests, Mr. Cohen and Ms. Shaw’s collection includes stunning examples of the genre across the history of the medium. Julia Margaret Cameron’s Portrait of Julia Jackson, 1876, depicts Virginia Woolf’s mother and one of Cameron’s favorite sitters. Poetry, and the power of the written word, is reflected in Irving Penn’s Joseph Brodsky, New York, Jan. 7, 1980, and Richard Avedon’s W. H. Auden, poet, St. Mark’s Place, New York City, March 3, 1960. Their lifelong involvement in art and with artists is exemplified in Thomas Struth’s Gerhard Richter, 1993 (illustrated right), and Rineke Dijkstra’s Thomas Struth, Dusseldorf, Germany, March 24, 2002. Man Ray’s Portrait of Lee Miller, Paris, 1929 (illustrated below) celebrates the artist’s relationship with his muse, who would later become an esteemed photographer in her own right. The auction also includes Henri Cartier-Bresson’s 1961 study of architect louis Kahn and portraits of such diverse luminaries as John F. Kennedy, Paul Verlaine, Abraham Lincoln, the Dalai Lama, and John Lennon, among many others.
In all, the works to be offered span over150 years of photography. Charles Clifford’s Sevilla. El Alcazar, 1858 (illustrated below), is an exceptional example from the medium’s early decades, and beautifully illustrates the relationship between architecture and light. A stellar selection of Eugene Atget photographs documents what Mr. Cohen calls “the elusive beauty of so many aspects of Paris.” Paul Outerbridge, Jr.’s Eggs ,and Bowl, 1922, is an extraordinary Modernist image from the first half of the 20th century, and demonstrates how the practiced eye of a photographer can change our way of seeing quotidian objects. Robert Frank’s U.S. 286, New Mexico, 1955-1956, Robert Mapplethorpe’s American Flag, 1987, and Stephen Shore’s Horseshoe Bend Motel, Lovell, Wyoming, 1973, offer three different, but equally compelling, ways of looking at America.
In all, the works to be offered span over150 years of photography. Charles Clifford’s Sevilla. El Alcazar, 1858, is an exceptional example from the medium’s early decades, and beautifully illustrates the relationship between architecture and light. A stellar selection of Eugene Atget photographs documents what Mr. Cohen calls “the elusive beauty of so many aspects of Paris.” Paul Outerbridge, Jr.’s Eggs ,and Bowl, 1922, is an extraordinary Modernist image from the first half of the 20th century, and demonstrates how the practiced eye of a photographer can change our way of seeing quotidian objects. Robert Frank’s U.S. 286, New Mexico, 1955-1956, Robert Mapplethorpe’s American Flag, 1987, and Stephen Shore’s Horseshoe Bend Motel, Lovell, Wyoming, 1973, offer three different, but equally compelling, ways of looking at America.
On the 4th of October, Phillips will also have the Photographs auction, taking place inNew York. Comprised of over 200 lots, the sale will include works by contemporary and twentieth century masters such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Cindy Sherman, Helmut Newton, Man Ray, and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others including Robert Frank, Walker Evans, and Paul Citroen.
“Our Photographs sale brings together a wonderful group of works that span the very best of the photographic medium,” said Sarah Krueger, Head of Department, Photographs, New York. “From Wolfgang Tillmans’ Freischwimmer 20 to Helmut Newton’s large-scale print of his iconic Saddle II, this sale pairs contemporary and classic prints to showcase the wide breadth of 20th and 21st century photography.
